My first entry and ice making in Beijing

I'm not sure what this blog will achieve or exactly what it will be about. Of course it will center on my very interesting and exotic life in China.

I've been in Beijing more than three years and I'm still struck by the oddities of daily life and the mostly lovely encounters they create. For an Anglo Canadian boy, who has learned to speak quite fluent Mandarin Chinese, life here is almost always a pleasant challenge.

On my walk with Xiong today, for example, I saw a group skaters applying a fresh coat of ice on one of the local canals in my neighborhood. They sloshed buckets canal water on the bumpy, dirty frozen canal while two guys pulled a sodden carpet remnant over the damp mess. Of course it seemed to work. As you can see they were making one little circle of fresh ice at the bend of the canal.

There are very few skaters in Beijing. The winter is barely long enough for the effort, although this year has been the coldest I've experienced. I haven't seen ice skates for sale in any sports store, but I've heard you can find them.

Oh yes, Xiong is our friends' little white dog who has come to stay with us for a few days. We've been having great walks. The white dog taking the white guy for a walk sure gets some odd looks.

Okay, enough for a first entry. Let's see how this looks.

Cheers,
Lao Bi